


Prime Father Material

by Nitrobot



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Dubious Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Oral Sex, Pregnancy, Riding, Sparklings, Sticky Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-12
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2017-12-29 05:13:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1001303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nitrobot/pseuds/Nitrobot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Optimus Prime learns never to go on patrol when there's a horny spider about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Spider webs were, by no means, not an uncommon sight among the ferns of Earth's far flung forests. To Optimus, and other's who could appreciate the beauty beheld by this alien world, they warranted a sense of appreciation from his spark- glittering threads of dew drops strung from the trees and the flowers; so vulnerable and broken and covering his armour in silken showers. 

Yes, spider webs were one of those pleasant little Earthen details that Optimus had quickly come to admire.  
That's not to say that the first thought in his processor when he almost collided with the giant wall of web before him was "Pretty". Rather it was more along the lines of "That shouldn't be there." Unless the planet's arachnids had blossomed suddenly in either size or spinneret efficiency, Prime saw it as a cause for worry.

As he tried to back away from the encroaching strands of web, he scowled beneath his mask at how some had taken to leeching onto his armour and effectively tying him to the whole structure. Another cause for worry. His sword slid out of his servo and made to sever the strings, but something swimming around his olfactories paused him. His raised servo dropped and widening optics glanced around as he hesitantly cycled in the surrounding humid evening air. His sense scanners detected no impurities but still... something in the wind. Something close by tickling at where his nose would be; a sweet, warm cloying scent edged with... he felt that it should have been familiar, whatever it was. And the more he pulled it in, the more he was drawn to... the webs still stuck to his plating.

Just as he put two and two together he was suddenly shoved forward from an impact on his back, propelling him into the sticky lattice in a screech of metal and a yell of shock. Before he could attempt to recover from the attack, his flailing wrist was covered by a lump of fresh web instantly drying and disabling his hand. Optimus hung trapped within the white cage, helpless as a sparkling and furious as a starved Scraplet. 

"Well, well." A voice matching the silkiness of the strands supporting him weaved into his audios, making his clenched optics whirr wide and his helm to snap towards the source behind him. "The prize comes crawling back..." He managed to swivel his neck around halfway, but his attempts to see where for naught. With a growl his helm slumped limp again, just as he felt knives dent his side armour and a pair of optics gazing into him. He wasn't expecting them to be hovering upside down right in front of his faceplate, which accounted for his second yelp of surprise. A sultry chuckle echoed it, an entrancing sound that wreathed around his mind and blunted his senses. Was his helm getting heavier or...?

"A-Airachnid..." Optimus managed to growl past the sudden mist of lethargy weighing him down. If it wasn't for the web he would have collapsed amongst the leaf litter by now. He hadn't seen the Decepticon femme since their fight over the Immoboliser, and her presence now was nothing to rejoice over. He tried to morph his trapped servo into his shotgun, but the haze had reached his gears as they simply refused to move. 

"Nice to see you too, Prime," Airachnid said with an amused smirk as she lowered herself, shooting another jet of web onto his free servo to make sure his systems didn't manage to kick themselves back up again. With his weary wires all but clipped, all Optimus could do was hammer his vents against his battle mask as he glared at the Decepticon hanging over him. There was something different about her... he had seen more of her than he ever cared to when she had used him as a lookout post, but now even closer he saw that Airachnid's armour hung loose on her frame, and was slick with a glass-thin sheen of coolant. And the scent... it was billowing over him now, something sinful and wicked and delicious as energon...

"Ooh, you're not fighting so much _now_ , are you?" she pointed out as her smirk melted into a lazy grin, complimenting her optics glowing bright under the heavy lids. All Optimus managed in reply was a groan, muffled by his mask and jolting louder as Airachnid snipped the web strand holding her up, dropping herself onto him. Her claws ran down his frame, and if he had the strength his optics would have widened out of their sockets. Any minute those claws could rip into his armour and slice his energon veins... but they didn't. Each deadly touch was as gentle as a caress, and when she turned her helm towards she was inches away from nuzzling into his neck. 

"I'll be honest, Prime, I'm not in much of a killing mood today..." she admitted in a murmur as her optics fluttered- each time they opened again they burned brighter- and her servos reached up around his helm. 

"As a matter of fact, I'm going to need you _very much_ alive." Optimus olfactories were pulled against her protoform, and his mind went blank as they inhaled. Primus, that scent... he was drunk on it as it filled him with a strange warmth, as it danced around his processor and dipped in and out of his impulse nerves. He almost didn't hear Airachnid's whisper in his audios.  
"I'm afraid my species has a slight flaw..." Metal grinded against Optimus' pulsing codpiece as his groans leaked past his battle mask. "There comes a time were I have to find a big, strong mech to frag me full of his sparklings..." The metal retreated suddenly as Airachnid lifted herself off his chest, and when Optimus' optics wrenched themselves open all they saw was her rippling valve cover, seams glistening with the leakage of bright pink lubricant and wafting her spicy aroma around him.  
 _"And you're my first choice,"_ she purred in a wild grin as she traced the layers of his codpiece, rubbing against the metal protecting the throbbing length underneath. Before Optimus could even comprehend what she was doing the metal parted and his spike was free, rising erect as it pressurised and drawing Airachnid's gaze to the blue beads of transfluid. "Still, I want to make sure I get every little drop of you..." With a wink thrown behind her she prodded it with a talon, chuckling at Optimus' moan in response. Her claws wrapped around the hard ribs as she licked her glossa along it, soaking up the trails of fluid before kissing his tip.

"You like that, Big Daddy?" she moaned with his spike still between her lips, lapping at the head before sinking her mouth down it. Any reply Optimus would have made was lost past his mammoth groan, battle mask now gone and optics still locked onto her valve cover.  
 _'Primus help me, she's good...'_ He'd never had his spike sucked before- not even as Orion Pax, when he would have thought it perverse to have his Elita do such a thing. But Airachnid swallowing his length, ribs pulsing along her throat, chestplates massaging and glossa rimming the base, it was enough to make him scream in pleasure. 

A hidden instinct buried somewhere in his spark, now awakened by the spider's enticing heat scent, told him to use his own mouth for something else. 

The rhythm Airachnid's steady humming along Optimus was broken by a moan of surprise as he licked the fragile cover of her valve, and again along the dripping seams. She didn't even need to slide it open for him as his tongue pushed into an edge, digging in deep before shoving the cover aside and tracing her flexing rim. The lubricant now spilling down her thighs was brighter and sweeter than anything Optimus had ever seen or had the pleasure of tasting, and he regretted not being able to hold her hips closer to his faceplate. But as Airachnid pulled her mouth back up along his spike she did the favour for him, strings of saliva mixing with the transfluid pooling in her mouth as she moaned shamelessly. Her hips bucked wildly into Optimus' glossa as he scraped it along her walls, hitting every ceiling node he found and coaxing her into a screaming overload. The taste of her lube was worth having his own overload die down, as he imagined her valve sheathing his spike. The frantic rippling of her walls ebbed as Airachnid finally pulled away from his tongue, shaking from pleasure and her vocaliser printed with wobbly whines. When she looked down again at Optimus beneath her, the depths of her optics swirled with lust, chestplates damp with transfluid stains as she turned herself around, aiming her valve over his thick spike.

"I want you inside me, Big Daddy..." she mewled as her claws gouged into his shoulders. He nodded slowly, blind to the pain through the ecstasy sparking at his every nerve and hips aching to thrust up into her, but still anchored by lethargy. Her glossa twisted around his own while she slowly seated herself on him, slick mesh squeezing along the ribs and tip nestling between her deepest sense nodes. Her mouth pulled away to let out a new moan, and Optimus took the opportunity to bite into her exposed neck, deep enough to dent her protoform. Rocking back and forth on his length she held his helm closer, pressing it into her chestplates and positively purring at the sensation of his glossa licking at her faction symbol there. Optimus didn't even care about _that_ any more, he just wanted to see this femme filled with his transfluid and carrying _his_ sparklings. 

He was wondering what sound she'd make if he was able to slap her aft while she rode him when her second overload ripped through her valve, triggering his own overload and milking the fluid as it erupted from his spike. Even after the pleasure faded she still bucked her hips into him, reluctant to get off or set her new toy free. Eventually she popped his spike out and fell forwards onto him, gasping while her itching valve finally closed and kept his load inside her. Optimus gazed down at her with wilted optics as he sobered from her disappearing scent. Now that she was satisfied, her heat was over. But even when he felt movement returning to his servos, he didn't try breaking free just yet. Airachnid still moaning lightly against him, legs wet with his own lust... in an odd way, she was beautiful. 

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Airachnid promptly slid herself back off of Optimus- to his disappointment- and zipped back up into the trees as quickly as she appeared. 

"I'll find you again when they're born, Big Daddy," she promised with a chuckle, all previous simpering gone in place of her usual sass, all placed in a departing wink as she left the scene. Optimus stared after her for a long time before he thought to look down again at the mess they had made- web strands and the ground below sporting blue and pink, and the same colours drying on his armour. His spike was flaccid again, all evidence of its betrayal gone. With a grunt Optimus pulled a servo free with mocking ease to place his codpiece back over, wincing at how sensitive it was. He tried to avoid the fluid puddles as his pedes touched down again, and he resolved to stop off at a river to wash himself clean.

But if what Airachnid said was true, all the washing in the world wouldn't be able to erase what she was going to birth in just a few months time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was contemplating continuing this for a while after I first wrote it, but eventually I just forgot as other fics took up my attention. But here I am again, with an extra chapter at the request of a kind commenter who brought back some ideas I had. I'm not sure when or if there will be a chapter after this, but I definitely want to write something cute between new Mama Air and Daddy OP at some point o3o

Miraculously, no-one noticed or questioned Optimus’ lateness in returning from patrol or the shaking that persisted through his frame. He’d washed off all traces of lubricant and fluids that might have given him away, with a long time spent in the base washracks to make sure, but still he had the lingering suspicion that one of them would know somehow. That Arcee might detect some essence of her arch enemy on him or Ratchet would instantly sense his heightened sparkrate or crackling EM field.   
But even his closest friend made no further observation than commenting on his high body heat output, and Optimus retired to his quarters with sparklings and guilt heavy on his processor.

Even Optimus knew it wasn’t completely abnormal for Autobots and Decepticons to meet in secret- some might be in pre-existing relationships before the war or, more rarely, a chance meeting on the battlefield might have led to something bigger. Most commonly though, reckless undercover Autobot recruits would find themselves caught up in a Kaon brothel with more femmes in their laps than they knew what to do with. 

This was nothing like that, though. This was a case of fraternisation between the leader of the Autobots and one of the Decepticon’s most infamous officers. From what Airachnid had said, newsparks could be budding in her chamber even as their sire lay dead to the world on his berth miles away. 

Airachnid as a _carrier_ as well? The mere thought was as strange to him as Ultra Magnus throwing a sparkday party. The spider barely showed any common mercy, let alone anything resembling maternal instincts. Still, techno-organics were a baffling breed by nature. For unknown reasons many of them underwent cycles of being driven to interface and reproduce, which certainly didn’t help their seedy reputation and forced their personality modules to go haywire.

In Airachnid’s case, obviously translated to her ambushing him for his transfluid. 

Optimus certainly wasn’t inexperienced with interface- Elita One had been his sparkmate for centuries before and during the war- but he’d certainly never had any _sparklings_ come from it. His firewalls always diluted the nanites in his fluid, and Elita’s gestation chamber was kept airtight. 

But Airachnid... her biology would be nothing like that of a normal Cybertronian’s. She had a regular valve like any other femme, yes, but her body would have been designed to conceive at any cost. Her pheromones manually disabled his firewalls, he sensed that straight away, and her valve pulsed to get as much transfluid from his spike as possible. Rippling and massaging so teasingly around him...

His codpiece was still tingling from the memory, and it took all his remaining willpower to not slide it open again. How many bots had he disgraced by allowing his capture to happen? His sparkmate. His entire team, Arcee especially. The Thirteen Primes who entrusted him with their wisdom and witnessed it thrown away...

He’d try and forget about the whole ordeal (if it could even have been _called_ one) and just recharge. Regain his strength and let all remaining pheromones in his systems fade away.   
Blue accusing optics burned through his dreams.

 

**xx**

 

Days and months passed, and the incident faded from Optimus’ memory. It still remained like a worrisome ghost, but it no longer forced him to dedicate any further thought to it. He fought, he slept, he refuelled. Life and war went on, and he saw no more of Airachnid until she set the date for their reunion herself.

It was right in the middle of another patrol, in the frosty month of November. Nevada would have still been unseasonably warm, but today Optimus had stationed himself in one of Canada’s forests where snow hung heavy on bare tree limbs and muffled his steps. Ratchet had alerted him to a foreign signal detected in the area, and the thought of a trap set by Airachnid had barely crossed his mind until he saw a flash of black armour among the trees. His guns were already deployed and trained instantly on her when she popped up dangling on a thick branch overhead.

“Oh, do put the toy guns away, Optimus,” she said as if commenting on some store display. “I know you wouldn’t kill me, a _poor helpless mother to be_...” Her talons fanned out over her chestplates, and she grinned at Optimus’ wide optics. He kept his guns on display.

“So... you _are_ carrying.”

“I wasn’t able to check in with Knockout for confirmation, but these _do_ look bigger, don’t they?” His optics flicked away as she leaned down to show off her chestplates, holding each one in her claws. 

“Come now, Prime, I hardly think you can be so prudish to the femme who rode your spike like a cyberhorse.” Her grin turned sinful in the space of a klick, and she laughed as his battle mask slid over his frown to conceal its faltering.

“Sadly of course, I don’t remember much of it, but at least I have something to brag about.” Optimus edged around her cautiously, not knowing what to expect from her.

“How did you create a false signal?” Airachnid raised an eyeridge down at him, elegantly switching to her back legs to crawl along a network of thinner branches to follow him.

“You speak as if it’s hard. Well, I’m not one to give away all of my secrets, but let’s just say there’s some Cybertronian wildlife on this planet that are more than happy to _lend_ me their internal beacons...”

That was when Optimus noticed the cyan stains on her claws

He took a long step backwards. She laughed again, and dropped down onto a lower branch.

“Our next rendevouz really must be somewhere warmer, darling. Such a shame I left all my thick armour with the Decepticons...”  
“You assume there will _be_ another meeting between us.”

She shrugged at his growl. "The only way to prevent one would be to offline me here and now.”

Looking back on that moment, he doubted he would ever have been able to. Even with his weapons centred on her, the trigger mechanisms so easy to click, knowing that he’d never have another opportunity as good as this one...  
He transformed them to his servos again, and stood silent in the snow while she smirked.

“That’s better now, isn’t it? Now, I predict the sparklings will arrive sometime in the next two vorns.” Optimus calculated the human equivalent would be two months. “... and I can understand if your schedule might be full, but I’m sure they’d be _dying_ to meet their handsome sire...”

He tried to ignore her question and the creeping blush on his faceplate. “And what do you plan to do with sparklings in the middle of a war zone?”

For the first time Airachnid allowed uncertainty to surface on her faceplate as she tapped her chin. “Honestly, that wasn’t much of a consideration when I was driven mad with heat.” The smirk quickly rooted itself in her expression again. “But I’m sure I’ll find a place for them away from all the gunfire, don’t you worry. Unless of course, you expect to recruit them into the _Autobots_...” She scoffed, barely glancing at his furrowed eyeridges. “But you have better things to do than run daycare.” His optics flicked up to see her about to leave, front legs carving a path through the tangle of leaves behind her, and something stirred deep in his spark. Somehow, it jumped up and out of his vocaliser before he could contain it.

“... They are my sparklings as well, Airachnid.” Her working legs froze, and she looked back at him in surprise. Even he was shocked at how deep the statement was from his core, how it carried through the frosted air. Something within him told him, _commanded_ him, to take responsibility, even if it wasn’t his decision to have children. He didn’t recognise them as paternal instincts then, but they took a fierce hold of him. Everything else; the Autobots, the Decepticons, the war, it all faded into insignificance in the face of his unborn children. 

With her faceplate turned to him, Airachnid smiled in a strange way, with not a hint of mockery or spite in its inflection. She didn’t give him any time to decipher it before she continued on her way, leaving him alone again in the cold. Snowflakes melted on him, but did little to soothe the burning in his spark.


	3. Chapter 3

His sparklings...

The thought was as strange to him as the fact of Airachnid carrying any. Before Megatron brought the war crashing down upon him he had considered siring children with Elita One, and she had been warm to the idea as well.

But her spark was long dead. Airachnid was his only hope of ever achieving that young dream now. 

The unborn sparklings chirped and crawled all over his processor, every day and night, tugging at every scrap of attention he had to spare. They stared up at him with impossibly wide eyes as he tried to recharge, and wailed distantly when any of his team tried to deliver scout reports. They even almost made him lose a servo, and they whimpered as Ratchet berated him for not dodging Knockout’s cannon blast while he soldered Optimus’ shoulder. He managed to comfort them in his dreams, but those came rarely. His processor wasn’t accustomed to imagination. 

Even so, his spark told a different story from its pulsating that the sparklings caused. 

He wondered if any would look like him... would they be techno-organic, like their mother? How many would she birth, and how many would survive?

Even if they all lived to adulthood, he very much doubted the rest of his team would accept them, if they ever discovered their existence. His own relation to them would mean nothing with Airachnid as their carrier- not only a Decepticon, but also a murderer, sadist, hunter; some bots would go so far to call her an abomination. 

Yet, he couldn’t stop his growing fondness of her. He tried to dismiss it as a general empathy; a pity that he innately felt for all Decepticons underneath Megatron’s rule. Or he might blame it on the undeniable link that existed between their sparks now- even without merging them together, a portion of his lifeforce was being nurtured by her own body. And he couldn’t ignore that. Not when they were due to be birthed any day now.

Two months, she had said in the chill of November. It was January now, but even so snow was sparse in the oppressive heat of Nevada. Optimus was slightly saddened by it; he liked the snow, the crunch of it beneath his peds and the whisper of an icy breeze across his armour plating. When it wasn’t threatening to freeze his systems and sent him into permanent stasis, it was pleasant. 

Then again, Airachnid _had_ said their next meeting would be somewhere warm. At least the sparklings would be happy about that. He’d read on one of Ratchet’s old medical manuals that younglings always craved warmth wherever they could find it; from their progenitors sparks, Shaula’s rays on Cybertron and even the heat envelopes of the mining district’s magma pools. That was why Kaon had railings installed- too many abandoned youngsparks falling to their molten doom. 

As long as Airachnid didn’t go into labour near a volcano, Optimus doubted there would be much danger of that happening to their children.

 

**xx**

 

She went into labour somewhere within the vicinity of Mauna Loa in the Earth country of Hawaii. Jack had mentioned it was said to be the largest volcano on Earth just before Optimus stepped through the Ground Bridge to track down ‘another mysterious signal’. 

Even with the same ploy she used last time, Optimus wasn’t sure what to expect. Unlike Canada, Hawaii only had vast plains occasionally dotted with trees and rocks, which in theory should have made finding Airachnid much easier than if she was hidden among a forest. 

In reality, it took him well over half a breem (if his chronometer was correct) to come into range of her wayward spark signature, and longer still to pinpoint her location. Her EM field was buzzing with static that ruined the magnetic functions of his compass and GPS technology, and it was only through wandering that he stumbled across black plating baking in the sun and leaned against a solitary tree. 

He took a heavy vent and approached slowly, servos wide from his chest to show he had no weapons revealed. Almost every sire in Cybertron’s history had a horror story to tell of their children’s birth, and how their sparkmates cursed them for putting them through the agony. None of them had a techno-organic as their carrier, and certainly not a femme like Airachnid. 

Her optics were closed over and she seemed dead to the world from how still she was, with coolant shimmered over her armour. Her servos were wrapped across her chest, and something like a plum smile made her faceplate sweet. 

On her chestplates, three tiny shapes squirmed when he knelt down to see them. 

“You missed the good part,” their mother mumbled, pink light bleeding through the slits of her opening optics. Optimus barely heard her, he was so enamoured with the sight of what their union had created. Two sparklings were rare enough for any femme, but _three_ were practically unheard of outside of Seekers. 

And they were the most beautiful things the Prime had ever seen. 

“Two mechs, and a femme.” Airachnid’s voice was obviously pained and pitted with exhaustion, but her smile remained as she looked down at them. “Recharge came before any ideas for names did.” Optimus had one digit stretched out to them, letting the blind sparklings sense his presence and know their sire was with them. The femme, with lighter grey armour than her brothers, rolled over towards him, chirping feebly and pawing a tiny servo at his hand. He could have held all three on that one hand if he so wished. 

“Airachnid...” Optimus wasn’t sure what he wanted to say to her. He just had to say her name, and let the sparklings hear his voice. A quiet chorus of coos followed his whisper, and even Airachnid’s weary spark fluttered as she nodded in  
acknowledgement to Optimus; too exhausted for words. He had been incredibly sceptical of how the femme would treat their offspring, knowing she was anything but maternal in his instincts. But seeing how she looked at them erased all remaining doubt. All femmes loved their children, knowing they were utterly defenseless and products of their own spark and that of the mech they loved most in the world. The spider and Prime may not have been as conventional as other bonded pairs, but nevertheless even with the absence of courting and romance they had created children. This was the future of their race. This was what happened when Autobots and Decepticons came together as one. 

For the first time since the war’s genesis, Optimus allowed himself to forget his duties as a Prime, his campaign against all of Airachnid’s creed. He allowed himself to bask in the newborn love for his sparklings that threatened to spill from his spark and engulf him completely. Coolant was beading in his optics as his daughter placed kisses on his digit and one of his sons nuzzled into his palm, purring serenely. It was said the purr of their sparkling was all that new parents needed to recharge, and sure enough the Prime’s optic lids almost closed over before his chronometer started beeping. 

Through the liquid mist in his vision, he saw that dusk was already settling over the plains. Hours had passed in klicks, and the joy in his spark was diluted with newfound dread at how the Autobots would be worrying about him. 

Airachnid seemed to be in a trance of her own, but her optics abruptly jolted away from the sparklings and to him when he rose to his peds. 

“I have to leave now.” His voice was monotone, hollow. Worry started to fill its gaps in his next words. “Airachnid... how will you provide for them?”

“The same way I provide for myself, Prime.” She gathered them close to her chest and started to rise herself, using her back legs to keep her upright. “They’ll survive. As you said, they’re _our_ children, after all.” She had regained most of her strength, and her confidence to go along with it. Her tone tried to dismiss the unmistakable love she felt for the sparklings, and she knew it had failed when she couldn’t meet his optics with her own. 

“You said you hadn’t thought of designations for them...” Optimus recalled, tempted to linger as long as possible. 

“Hot Rod and Silverbolt. That is what I plan to name the mechs.” He couldn’t help his helm tilting sideways curiously at her choices. “Seeing as you are the sire, though, it’s only fair you name the one left over.” Airachnid let him take the wriggling daughter from her servos while she sprayed webbing cocoons for her brothers, securing them both to her back in a makeshift harness. Optimus was reminded of how the mother wolf spiders of Earth would carry their young on their backs, but he knew better than to mention the resemblance. 

The daughter was fragile and dwarfed by his servos as he cradled her, letting his spark fill its chamber and radiate through his chest plating. She must have felt its warmth, as she turned over and pushed into the red armour.

“... Scorpia.” It took all of Prime’s resolve to hand her back to Airachnid once he had made his decision.

Now it was Airachnid’s turn to be curious. “I’ve never heard that name before.”

“Cybertron is thought to be within a cluster of stars known to the humans as ‘Scorpio’. By modelling her name after it, I hope to bring part of our home planet to Earth,” he explained, wringing his hands together uncomfortably. They felt so empty without his sparklings tugging on the digits. When he vented, cold evening air replaced the humid mugginess that clung to his senses. “If that will be all, I will take my lea-“

“Before you go, Optimus...” Airachnid stopped him just as he was turning, talons on his lower servo plating. It was the first time she had touched him since conceiving the sparklings strapped to her back. Her optics glanced sideways for a few moments, and she seemed like she was about to run away at any moment before she rose up on her back legs and gently placed her lips to his cheek. The metal was already flushed, and it started to burn fiercely as she pulled away. Airachnid only nodded once more at him, and was already skittering away on her legs as he stared after her. Their sparklings were tiny bundles that seemed to wave at him while she made her escape. 

He watched after her long after she had faded from view, and the other Autobots found him standing alone in the darkness of the evening and the shadow of Mauna Loa. Ratchet was confused when he found no case of joint stiffness, sudden system lag or even a motor issue during his examination of Optimus, and when asked what in Primus’ name he was doing out there his vocaliser simply closed up. 

“Did you at least find out what the signal was?” That was the only question Optimus had the remaining resolve to answer.

“No. It was another glitch on the radar, I suspect.” When Ratchet turned to kick and curse at the base’s main computer, he missed the flicker of a sad smile on Prime’s coolant-stained faceplate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'll leave this as the last chapter, and honestly I never intended to make it a multi-chapter work in the first place (but I just had to write robot babbies at some point. I have a weakness). Where Airachnid ends up next and what happens to the sparklings is something I'll just leave open for the reader to decide for themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> In which I keep making terrible title puns. How did this happen, you scream to the heavens? Basically I felt guilty because while my OTP is Soundwave/Airachnid, Emmy's is Optimus/Airachnid. I've been pretty much spamming her with stuff to do with the latter, and the least she deserves is some spider-bot McLovin' for putting up with me.  
> The creation of the nickname 'Big Daddy' goes to her, as well as Airachnid being capable of heat cycles (those wacky techno-organics and their sexual deviancy!)


End file.
